Union County, Ohio - Chapter 16: The Military History or Union County, 1915 (part 3 of 3)

In sumnnng up results he stated that "four miles of railroad track was completeh- destroyed, and ten miles badly damaged. Two locomotives with one train of cars were total destroyed, and another train partially destroyed A wagon train and many ambulances were captured, and a large amount of armv supplies burned at Jonesborough. One four-gun battery, three battle flags, with a large number of horses and mules, were captured, and one hundred prisoners (jf the eight hundred to one thousand taken at Lovejoy were brought into our lines, the balance having e.scajied in the darkness during the rapid march in a pouring rain on the night of .\ugust 20th."

General Long, in a letter written to the writer a few years ago, stated that in the fight with Clebourne's infantry, after the charge, and when Long was severely wounded, that he "maneu\ered his brigade by bugle commands or signals as he had never seen done before or since in a battle."

three hundred and twentv-six, of which two hundred and sixteen were in the brigades of Mintv and Long, Second Division, and one hundred and ten of the Third Di\ ision. Among the officers killed were Capt. W. H. Scott, of the First Ohio Cavalry, inspector-general on the stafT of Colonel Long; Capt. James G. Taylor, Seventh Pennsylvania Cavalry, Lieut. C. C. Hermans, Seventh Pennsylvania Cavalry. The Confederate losses were heavy, but could not be ascertained definitelv. but they were, no doubt, as heavy as our own.

A dispatch sent from Atlanta to the Memphis Appeal, and published a few days after the fight, gives the Confederate side, and is herewith published -

"The newspapers ha\e lately been full of accounts of how Martin's division of cavalry was run over by the Yankees at Lovejoy on the 20th ultimo. The writer was on the field on that occasion, and in justice to the much-abused ca\a!ry states the facts in the matter.

"Martin's division, supporting the battery, was formed on the AIcDonough road. Ross' and Ferguson's commands on foot were in front and on each side of the battery, behind rail breastworks. A brigade of Clebourne's infantrv was on the left of the road in three lines, the last one in a piece of woods. About one hundred yards in rear of the position of the battery, on the right of the road (east side) the State troops were formed in line. When the 'S'ankees charged they came in a solid column, ten or twelve lines deep, running their horses and yelling like devils. They didn't stop to fight or attempt tn keep an\- kind of order or formation, but each fellow for himself rushed i)n, swinging his saber over his head.

"Thev rode over Ross' and Ferguson's men in the center, and over and through Clebourne's lines, one after another, on the left. Clebourne's first line, thev sav. tried to use their bayonets, but the 'S'ankees cut them to pieces. After the Yankees had cut through all the other forces and captured the battery, iMartin. seeing the field was lost, retreated in good order to the east and joined Clebourne's main bod>'. and aided in the final defeat of the enemy on the ]\IcDonough road that evening, and pursued them to and through Mc- Donough that niglit, recapturing nearly five hundred of our men, which they took in the charge. The effort to arouse the people against Martin and his bra\e division is more disgraceful and demoralizing than the Yankees' charge itself, and should be frowned upon by all who wish well to our cause."

The distance marched by Kilpatrick's command was about one hundred and twentv miles, and the route can be traced on the accompanying official map.